How Proactive Choices Can Be Used to Drive Change Rather than Waiting for Change - Coursework Example

Strategic Choices Name Student Number Course Code Tutor’s Name Introduction Human beings are endowed with the capacity to make choices. Decision making and problem solving are critical component of proactive strategic choices. Proactive strategic choices are deliberate planned and made to anticipate a situation instead of being reactive. The ultimate of this discussion explosion is to affirm by agreeing to the fact that if an individual or organisation is proactive about strategic choice, they are much more likely to get what they want than if they wait for others to initiate. To corroborate this perspective, the paper examines the role of proactive strategic choice in anticipating the future through sense making & scenario building so as to provide plausible options for countering uncertainties. Secondly, how strategic choices are integral in tapping and or creating opportunities, enhancing capabilities and competitiveness by limiting threats/weaknesses. Lastly, the paper shows how proactive choices can be used to drive change rather than waiting for change to happen. Grounded on this perspective, it would be prudent to outline the role of strategic choices in helping individual/ organisations get what they want than if they wait for others to initiate. Strategic choices is a sub component of planning and decision making that allows one to pick the viable options through bounded rationality after evaluating various alternatives based on parameter such as cost benefit analysis; strength, weakness, opportunity & threats analysis; payoff matrix and decision trees so as to at least attain the optimal solution or at most the maximum expectation (Chandra, Krovi and Rajagopalan, 2009, p.48). Indeed, Alkhafaji (2003) opines that studies have proven that organisations or individuals who engaged in strategic management and choice making normally outperforms those who do not (p.3). Human beings are gifted with the ability to reason and make decisions instead of waiting for others to do it for them. One way that being proactive about strategic choices help an individual or organisation in getting what they want is based on the fact strategic choices can be used in anticipating and shaping the future since the process is futuristic and can be used in countering uncertainties. In this regard, Jones (1999) indicates that those who are engaged in making of strategic through approaches such as bounded rationality are always goal-oriented, objective in their cause and adaptive in regards to the existing situations which are dynamic (p.297). Being objective thus allows the decision maker to anticipate and shape the outcome of the future based on the current or existing situation and previous experiences. Reducing risks and uncertainties is based on scenario building and sense making. Within these two elements (scenario building and sense making) one is able to get what she or he wants because that individual is sure of various options and the path to follow. Tillmann and Goddard (2008, 80 and 81) notes that being proactive in strategic choices entails structuring, harmonising, bridging, contextualising, compromising and balancing of options within the context of prevailing internal, external environment, existing information and professional knowledge. The plausibility of this argument is anchored on the fact that the immediate environment of an individual or organisation is dynamic and full of uncertainties. These uncertainties greatly predetermine business stability. Businesses should have continuity planning so that in an event of unforeseen hazard they can be able to rise up. This then calls for hazard/ risk identification and risk management process. The risks and uncertainties that business phase can originate from natural factor or manmade factors. Moreover, they can be tied to environmental factors, economic factors and socio-political factors (Stewart and Melchers,1997, p.1, 6 and 7). One key component of risk management is business continuity planning. Risks management entails the protection of firm’s valuable components from a threat. The protection can be in term of physical security, back up of data, and insurance. Risk management help in mitigating of operational risks associated with certain business (Smith, 2003, p.49). The assessment in great deal helps firms detect areas of concern so as to prioritize use of resource in order to maximize response and recovery efforts. The process exposes operations that are subject to a single point of failure. The significant part of business continuity planning includes risk assessment. Risk assessment is one of the key components in risk management. Risk assessment entails the predetermination of qualitative and quantitative value of risks connected to a situation and a likely threat or hazard. Qualitative approach to risk assessment entails calculations of two components of risks, magnitude of the potential loss and the probability for loss occurring. In engineering field assessments are done especially in relation to threat to life, social impacts, threat to environment or machine functionality. Risk assessment can also be carried out in relation to financial stability and business recovery plan, and information system vulnerability/ security (Hurst, 1998, p.42 and 43). The concern to the above problems is how to conceptualize model and visualize risks, define and monitor the risks’ impacts, analyze the probability of risk occurrence and mitigate the negative impact of risks. This is where proactive strategic choices come into forefront. Toit (2003, p.27) observes that strategic choice as a means of sense making enables decision makers to synthesize complexities in their environment to a logical level. Thus, the process of proactive choice making has a significant position in helping an individual/ organisation overcome uncertainties and hence, being able to anticipate and shape the future. For instance, through proactive choice, an organization can estimate possible loss as a result risks, threats or vulnerability of an asset. This kind of estimation can be achieved through quantitative risk assessment of calculating annualized loss expectancy. The results from the assessment can then be used by an organization to justify their expenditure to implement measures of protecting that asset (LaGoy, 1994, p. 2). Thus strategic choices offer one the capacity to link various data so as to build implementable information. Secondly, strategic choices are significant in tapping opportunities, enhancing capabilities, competitiveness and in countering threats so as to create a distinctive competitive advantage (Thompson and Martin, 2010). For an organisation, a strategic choice is embedded with the process of strategic management. Strategic choices is integral in helping individual or an organisation in pinpointing and exploiting opportunities while limiting the negative aspects such as threats and weaknesses. Thus, strategic is critical in helping an individual or organisation in getting what they want in terms of opportunities so as to enhance the chances of success/ dominance and market leadership. Hill and Jones (2007, p.15) notes that strategic choices are critical in helping organisations counter external threats, harness and deploy resources, respond to opportunities and completion so as to survive and to create key success factors and or core capabilities essential for creating a distinctive competitive advantage. Using case example of organisation and how strategic choices can help them get what they want in regard to tapping opportunities, Thompson and Martin (2010) notes that strategic choices is principal in helping organisation to outline how they can meet the demands and expectations of the customers. In a nutshell, what they imply is that strategic choices within the context of seizing opportunities rests on the fact that it helps individuals or organisations to do things better than their rivals and thus be ahead of the pack or attain the position of a market leader. The principal aspects under strategic choices that help one tap opportunities, enhancing capabilities and competitiveness include rationality approaches of decision making that applies quantitative approach and tools such as decision tree, multivariate analysis, break-even point, inventory tables and payoff matrix. As a means of contextualising the discussion, the paper will use the case example of payoff matrix. Payoff matrix is among the commonly used quantitative tools in rational decision making. Burton and Thakur (1995, p.118) reiterates that the tool depicts the probable value of all the alternatives or options available for the decision maker. As such, payoff matrix shows the various outcomes together with their probability of occurring. The probabilities usually range from 0 (zero) indicating no chance of occurrence to 1 (one) indicating a certain chance of occurrence. These figures are usually expressed as percentages. These percentages represents the number of times the alternatives or rather options available for the decision maker is actually apt to occur in a hundred trials. For instance, if a businessman predicts a 70 per cent probability that a company dealing in automobiles will incur losses in a particular financial year, then it means that the company has a seventy out of a hundred chance of incurring loss and thirty out of a hundred chance of making profit in that particular financial year. Thirdly, how proactive strategic choices can enable individual/ organisation get what they want than if they wait for other to initiate is in driving change and shaping destination. The contemporary business environment is changing at a rate that is an unprecedented and characterized by stiff competition; technological advancement, innovation and change; privatization, downsizing and restructuring; deregulations, scarce resources (Agboola and Salawu, 2011; Lawrence and Robinson, 2007), politically-oriented shifts towards neo-liberalism, and globalization (Hendrickson and Gray, 2012; Ip and Jacobs, 2006). Organizations must embrace change resulting from such a dynamic business environment to realize their vision, mission and objectives/goals, and adapt to the prevailing business environment to gain competitive advantage. In the process, business operations, processes as well as rules are revised; some lines of products are dropped while others are introduced; new equipments replace old ones; and adjustments are performed on the workforce depending on both the external and internal conditions (Agboola and Salawu, 2011). Strategic choices will enable decision maker to examine performance gaps and future trends and thus, formulate appropriate solutions. Conclusion The rationale of this paper was to affirm or dispute through discussion whether if an individual or organisation is proactive about strategic choice, they are much more likely to get what they want than if they wait for others to initiate. The paper affirmed the statement with three examples. The first observation relates to the ability of proactive strategic choices helping individuals or organisations to anticipate the future through approaches such as sense making and thus, reducing associated vulnerabilities or uncertainties. Secondly, proactive strategic choices are crucial in tapping and or creating opportunities, enhancing capabilities and competitiveness by limiting threats/weaknesses. Therefore this allows organisation get what they want in terms of being competitive. Lastly, the paper outlined how proactive strategic choices help organisation drive change so as to conform to the dynamic environment for sustainability issues. References Agboola, A.A. and Salawu, R.O. (2011). Managing Deviant Behavior and Resistance to Change. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(1): 235-242. Alkhafaji, A. F. (2003). Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control in a Dynamic Environment. New York: Routledge. Burton, G. & Thakur, M. (1995). Management Today: Principles and Practice. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. Chandra, A., Krovi, R. & Rajagopalan, B. (2009). Risk Visualization: A mechanism for Supporting Unstructured decision Making Processes. The International Journal of applied management and Technology, 6(4): 48-70. Hendrickson, S. and Gray, E. J. (2012). Legitimizing Resistance to Organizational Change: A Social Work Social Justice Perspective. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(5): 50-59. 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